The Bengals are 1-8-1; they aren't good enough to play to win

Unfortunately, Sunday's tie overshadows the tremendous effort by the Bengals defense.

Johnathan Joseph said that the Eagles offense was too predictable. "From watching film, other teams in the league have been successful against them," Joseph said. They may have a lot of yards or whatever, but teams have been successful getting them off the field. They have tendencies you can pick up on and you have a good idea of what's going on."

Paul Daugherty questions the play calling of three plays. The first was the fourth-and-goal from the two-yard line (not the six-inch line) early in the game. The Bengals decided to kick a field goal rather than go for it, after three successive plays that netted them -1 yards; they are barely clipping 50% when forced to pick up 1-2 yards on third down. I would have loved the attempt to go for it (even made the argument during the game), but the Eagles defense is better than Daugherty allows who gives the Bengals offense way too much credit suggesting that they \ go for it on most fourth down scenarios. With the realities of this team this season, we wouldn't have picked up the score and lost the game rather than tie; not that a tie is that much better than a loss, but for two games we've upset other team's playoff ambitions.

I didn't get the third-down rush in overtime with eight minutes left in overtime, nor the final rush attempt before Shayne Graham's missed field goal -- though arguably that's a distance he has made. "When you're 1-8," Daugherty writes, "why don't you play to win?" It's really simple. They're 1-8, hence not that good.

The Chickster has tough words for the Pittsburgh Steelers. "You were lucky against San Diego. You won’t be as lucky on Thursday night, Nov. 20."

Darryl Blackstock learned his lessen after serving a four-game suspension.

Chris Perry's stat line: two touches for one yard (five-yard rush and four-yard loss on reception).

Eagles safety Quintin Mikell laid the hit that put Antonio Chatman into the hospital. "I felt bad," Mikell said "I was celebrating and I was sorry because I didn't know what happened. After I saw him on the ground, I was really worried."

On the drive that Houshmandzadeh scored a touchdown, Chad Johnson caught three straight passes for 23 yards. Johnson finished the day with four receptions for 34 yards receiving. However, Houshmandzadeh thinks that the Eagles heard the Bengals talking about the deep pass during the week. "They were wary of that," Houshmandzadeh said. "When they have an all-out blitz, they sit on everything. They didn't do that at all."

Cedric Benson was stuffed on his only rush attempt on the goalline early in the game. "There's almost no excuse for it," said Cedric Benson. "The goal line is more of an attitude thing. You can call anything you want. But it's more of an attitude. You've got to take pride being on the goal line that you're going to score no matter what."

I didn't like Chad's pregame, jumping into Eagles WR drills. I also don't like:

• No games with 100 yards receiving (57 yards is his season high).
• Seven games in which he doesn't score (on pace for six touchdowns)
• On pace for 65 receptions and 613 yards receiving.
• 22 first down receptions.
• Three 20-yard receptions, ZERO 40-yard receptions.